Former Quebec Premier and Parti Quebecois leader Jacques Parizeau speaks to supporters, November 16, 2009. REUTERS/Shaun Best (CANADA POLITICS)SHAUN BEST/Reuters
From our archives. This editorial was originally published in April 2015.
It wouldn't be an official Parti Québécois leadership contest without a timely drive-by from a certain chortling political icon.
Former PQ leader Jacques Parizeau has made a sport out of antagonizing the party he once led to power – and to the cusp of a referendum victory. But even by Mr. Parizeau's biting standards, his assertion in a recent Radio-Canada interview that the party is "adrift" and has "lost its soul" cuts deep. It's also hard to argue with the octogenarian's characterization that the PQ is a "field of ruins."
Indeed, none of the five leadership candidates rose to contradict the great man, who may be less and less recognizable to the average voter but remains a pillar of the sovereigntist movement, splintered as it may be.
On Tuesday, front-runner Pierre Karl Péladeau went so far as to agree with the critique and said his campaign "must satisfy" the old leader. Mr. Péladeau is widely considered a natural heir to the Parizeau-iste tradition, even if it's not a banner he's waved all that ardently of late. Of the current field, only former cabinet minister Martine Ouellet has vowed to hold a third sovereignty referendum within the first mandate of a new PQ government.
It's surely no coincidence that recent opinion polls show support for a notional "Yes" campaign at about 35 per cent.
The Parizeau prescription to move the needle is a familiar one: The argument for sovereignty must be front and centre, always. That is exactly what the PQ did in the 2014 election, spurred by Mr. Péladeau's raised fist and a hard turn toward identity politics. Everyone on the National Assembly's opposition benches, where the PQ now makes its home, remembers how well that went.
Recent surveys suggest that renewal is at hand, and that a Péladeau-led PQ could beat the ruling Liberals. But Mr. Parizeau highlights a paradox. Conclusively answering his criticism – and presumably restoring the party's souverainiste soul – requires his would-be successors to travel once more down a road that has led to electoral humiliation.
Which explains why most PQ leadership candidates can neither disagree with Parizeau's advice nor follow it. The elder statesman is the gift that keeps on giving to his former party's opponents.